This invention relates to a thermodynamic process, and more particularly to a process for a practical approach to the ideal transformations in a theoretical cycle of thermal to mechanical energy transformation, with an efficiency close to that of the ideal Carnot cycle.
The above-mentioned theoretical cycle, which the invention approaches, includes a process fluid that undergoes two isothermal transformations absorbing and yielding heat energy at the thermal levels of a heat source and a heat sink, respectively, and two constant pressure heat exchange steps with an identical average heat capacity in which the process fluid exchanges heat with itself in two separate stages (heating and cooling, respectively) and with the additional condition that the thermal levels of the source and the sink are sufficiently separated for the absolute value of the heat energy transformed into mechanical energy in the process to be sufficiently high.